Oh my River boy. You surprised us, son. 5 weeks early, narrowly escaping death, you, my son, are fearless. And what a terrifying gift you are. Your mother and I simultaneously wept and held our breath awaiting your first cry. And cry you did! It was loud, a voice of [...]
I am pleased to have therapist Matt Morrisey be the first guest blogger on my website. You can follow Matt's work here https://www.mattmorrissey.org/. Matt focuses on the healing sexual & intimacy issues with men and boys and works with the Allender Center. Boys Exposed: How Porn Traumatizes by Matt Morrisey [...]
excerpt from A Brave Lament Book ©abravelament 2017 all rights reserved It is so hard to think of his sweet body in the ground, many days I have to convince my hands not to dig him back up, even for a moment, just one more moment to hold him. These [...]
“Our sexuality affects everything we do, and everything affects our sexuality. The same is true of our spirituality -- that which is most deeply meaningful to us. We can deny both. But denying them does not mean they are not both alive in every breath and heartbeat of life.” ― Tina [...]
Pictures tell stories, both told and untold. This photo tells thousands. There are years I go without looking into its glory, but it always whispers back for my return. At times it is just too painful to peer into. Though nearly 30 years have passed since it was taken, there [...]
With another bombshell revelation in the news this month, Harvey Weinstein has used his place of power and influence to use and abuse a countless number of women. The response has been powerful with millions of women sharing their heartbreaking courageous stories on social media with [...]
©Andrew Bauman 2017 all rights reserved As you are attempting to step into your vocation and meaningful life’s work you must consider the graph above, what I call the “Cycle of Calling”. The first step to knowing what you are meant to [...]
This past week I spent in Ashland, OR at the Masters Center for Transformation, facilitated by Dr. Robert Masters (http://robertmasters.com/) . It was some of the deepest psychospiritual healing work I have ever done in my life. I laughed, I yelled, I moaned, I sang, I mourned, I grieved, and [...]
Robert Masters writes in his phenomenal book “To Be a Man”, “What we do sexually is a reflection of what we're doing with the rest of our lives”. This statement is profoundly true, and so is its opposite. What we have done with our lives (or what has been [...]
The pattern I often see when helping others process an unwanted relationship with pornography is a correlation between addiction and the propensity toward emotionally enmeshed relationships. Pornography teaches us to relate with emotional fusion and an inability to differentiate in a healthy way (this is another aspect of PSR). This [...]
I love women and I hate them. I need a woman close by to survive yet I can’t have a woman too close. If she gets too close, I will either self-destruct or annihilate her in a variety of socially acceptable, manipulative, systemic ways, like a brain surgeon using a [...]
When forgiveness is preached it feels so simple, so easy, yet there is nothing simply easy about it. Forgiveness well sort of sucks. I have heard this word so much growing up in church, it has become nauseating (probably why I avoided writing this for so long). Forgiveness is one [...]
A Poem for those of us with Anxiety By: Andrew J. Bauman At ease dear one. With the weight of the world on your shoulders, and the weight of your shoulders on the world, At ease. At ease strong one. With your mind running circles around those circles, Choking thought, [...]
The Idolatry of Sex: When Sex is God & God is Sex By: Andrew J. Bauman The category of idolatry rarely comes up when working through sexual brokenness. Yet it seems to be one of the most important categories to engage when attempting to unwind the tangles of [...]
A Brave Lament: a short film of life & death We are currently raising funds to complete our new film and book project. Please consider donating and sharing with your networks. During our grieving process, we realized authentic Christian resources were rare and lacking depth and emotional integrity. We wanted [...]
I remember the walls... The cold white lonesome walls that mirrored my image with perfection. Starring into my face I saw a colorless, chipped, lifeless wall echoing my future loudly. I remember this moment like it was tomorrow though it has been 13 years since I admitted myself into [...]
Inviting Pain & Welcoming Grief: how do you want to die? Grief requires us to acknowledge and surrender to our throbbing, it is easy to have contempt for this reality and deny its invitation into our lives. I would argue for grief’s essential role in our lives as the 16th-century [...]
My sweet sister-in-law Julie Mcgill Bauman died today one year ago. I remember holding her hand laying by her bedside while she was on life support. When they pulled the plug I couldn’t bear watching. I had to step away and lay down, I couldn’t see her hurting. But today [...]
Gun Reform VS. Self-Reform Engaging Violence within & without By Andrew J. Bauman “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they [...]
I wrote the poem below during a dark season of anguish and yearning for people to hold my broken heart responsibly. Most times noble hearted people with good intentions can be the most careless with a fragile, inconsolable heart. But we must continue to have the courage to invite our [...]
